NEWS

TORONTO - Since the translation of the Roman Missal has changed, the new texts of the people’s parts don’t fit the old music, said Bill Targett, director of the archdiocese of Toronto’s Office of Formation for Discipleship.

“So new music had to be written for those parts of the Mass that are normally sung,” he said.

Upon the recommendation of the National Council for Liturgical Music, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned composers Fr. Geoffrey Angeles, John Dawson and M. Michel Guimont to prepare new musical settings for the “ordinary” parts of the Mass.

TORONTO - Just as more churches across Canada have geared up to sponsor more refugees, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is planning to cap the number of new applications it will accept in the private sponsorship program.

Private Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) do not yet know what their limits will be as of Jan. 1. The government claims it needs to stop the annual flood of new applications to clear a backlog of 23,200 refugees with sponsors waiting in Canada.

“In some missions, refugees sponsored through the SAH stream must wait for almost five years before coming to Canada,” a CIC spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to The Catholic Register. “Limiting new applications will allow us to draw down the backlog and improve wait times.”

OTTAWA - Quebec could be headed for a fiscal collapse like that threatening Greece if it doesn’t re-examine its social programs, says a new study by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada.

“There are real reasons to be concerned about the sustainability of the rather ambitious Quebec welfare state,” say the authors of A Quebec Family Portrait released Nov. 7.

“Without substantial fiscal restructuring, the province may not be able to afford to maintain the extensive social benefits it currently offers families.”

OTTAWA - The head of Priests for Life Canada has weighed in on a heated political debate about whether Liberal MP Justin Trudeau is a good or bad Catholic.

“If someone wishes to be a Catholic they cannot pick and choose over the fundamental social justice teachings of the Church,” said Fr. Tom Lynch, who has headed the national pro-life organization of priests and lay members since 2008. “You cannot pretend that life issues and human sexuality teachings are not central to the social justice teachings of the Church.

“I cannot pretend to be a good Catholic and be a racist,” said Lynch. “You cannot pretend to be a good Catholic and be pro-abortion.”

OTTAWA - Changes in the no longer mandatory long-form census have prompted the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to examine new ways to fund their Ottawa-based secretariat.

“The bishops are becoming more and more aware that the CCCB has important financial challenges,” said CCCB general secretary Msgr. Pat Powers in an e-mail. “These include revenues and expenses, as well as how these have been reported in the past.”

Powers noted the CCCB “used to rely on Statistics Canada to provide data on the Catholic population of each diocese.” The census will no longer be asking for religious affiliation. The CCCB and the Catholic Civil Rights League were among many groups that opposed the changes last year.

GATINEAU, Que. - Hundreds packed the Gatineau cathedral on All Saints’ Day to bid farewell to Archbishop Roger Ébacher, who is retiring after having served the diocese for 23 years.

“Brothers and sisters, during these years of walking with you, I have received much from you,” Ébacher said in his homily, flanked by the bishops of Ottawa and Gatineau’s suffragan bishops from Amos, Mont Laurier and Rouyn-Noranda. “Every service in the Church is an exchange: we give and we receive.

“I received from you so many inspiring examples, encouraging support, generous solidarity, as well as challenges,” he said. “For this, I thank you with all my heart.”

OTTAWA - The fifth Ottawa 40 Days for Life prayer vigil ended Nov. 6 with signs the movement is stronger than ever.

Twenty-six parishes or groups participated in the vigil outside the Morgentaler abortion facility on Bank Street, a 20-per-cent increase over the last campaign. It also marked the first time the Bible was read out loud during the campaign.

Each day, for two hours straddling the busy noon hour, the Bible was read out loud with the help of a microphone and speaker set up at the site. 

TORONTO - The Commonwealth decision to let Catholics marry into the Royal Family but still exclude them from the throne doesn’t much impress Tony O’Donoghue.

“Big deal,” said an underwhelmed O’Donoghue as he works away on a book about everything that’s wrong with Canada’s constitutional monarchy. “Just allowing whoever is in line for the throne to marry a Catholic, is that a big deal? I think that’s a lot of B.S.”

O’Donoghue managed to get the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2003 to rule on the constitutional validity of the 1701 Act of Settlement, one of several laws that determine who may or may not be monarch. He wanted the Act of Settlement, which forms part of Canada’s Constitution, declared unconstitutional and invalid.

TORONTO - They won’t all agree, but they will acknowledge the common ground, if only because they’ve walked it together.

Franciscan Friar of the Atonement Father Damian MacPherson, Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton and Imam Abdul Hai Patel travelled together with an interfaith band of pilgrims to the Holy Land in September. Now they’re ready to report back.

The four leaders will present a panel discussion called “Walking the Path of Abraham” at the Scarboro Missions headquarters, 2685 Kingston Rd., in Toronto Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. 

HANOI, Vietnam - Redemptorists at a Hanoi parish have urged local Catholics to keep calm after a mob led by government officials attacked a convent and church in early November.

The Asian church news agency UCA News reported tens of thousands of people attended 10 special Masses celebrated Nov. 5-6 at Thai Ha Church in the capital. Each Mass was attended by an estimated 3,000-5,000 people.